Sunday, February 28, 2010

Yesterday I spent the day at a conference organized by Wild Ones ( www.for-wild.org ) entitled Design with Nature, Creating Communities Above and Below Ground. The keynote speaker was Douglas Tallamy. I have read his book Bringing Nature Home. and it is one of my favorites. An entomologist, Douglas Tallamy makes the connection between native plants, the insects that have evolved with them, and the birds and higher mammals that live off these insects. Alien plants cannot often support our insects, which have evolved to live off our native plants. Therefore, in gardens with fewer native species, there are fewer insects, thus less food for birds and other life.

Here are some of the points that Tallamy made in his talk yesterday:

our sterile landscapes are starving birds

there are currently 1/2 the number of birds than in the 1960's

1/3 of bird species in the US are endangered

we use TOO FEW plants

leave your leaves! Ground foraging birds need them!

alien ornamental plants have evolved outside of our local food webs

plants moderate our weather systems

we lose 50,000 acres per day to deforestation

in the next 50 years, 75 million acres of forestland will be cut down releasing 5.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide

We are paving over our healthy ecosystems

We have a love affair with the lawn

We need to put plants back into the landscape

landscape with plants that support our local food web

23% of Black Bear diet is insects

96% of terrestrial birds rear young on insects

minimize specimen planting, plant thickets and communities

woody plants support more animals that herbaceous plants

Horticulturists and Ecologists need to come together!!!

When he signed my book, Douglas Tallamy wrote, "Garden as if life depended on it!"